*Nominations are due February 20! Click here for the full list of 2018 deadlines.

AFTER ANNA by Lisa Scottoline
Anna is a drop-dead gorgeous sixteen-year-old with a secret dark side and when she turns up dead, all fingers point to her stepfather. “[A] nail-biting domestic thriller…. Filled with plenty of twists and complex characters, this entertaining story builds to a satisfying conclusion.” — Publishers Weekly

Available on NetGalley. To be pre-approved for an e-galley, please email library@macmillanusa.com with the subject “After Anna.”*

LOOK ALIVE OUT THERE by Sloane CrosleyTHREE starred reviews! The New York Times–bestselling author’s brand-new collection of essays is filled with her characteristic heart and punch-packing observations, but with a newfound coat of maturity. A thin coat. More of a blazer, really. “Crosley is exceedingly clever and has a witticism for all occasions, but it is her willingness to confront some of life’s darker corners with honesty and vulnerability that elevates this collection.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review

Download the e-galley from Edelweiss

THE COMEDOWN by Rebekah FrumkinOne of Nylon’s “50 Books We Can’t Wait To Read In 2018!”A dazzling epic that follows two very different families in Cleveland, where a drug deal gone wrong forces them to become irrevocably intertwined. “[F]rom page to page, character to character, this is a powerful debut. Frumkin has talent to burn…” — Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Download the e-galley from Edelweiss

WONDERBLOOD by Julia Whicker
A post-apocalyptic fantasy about religious war, a perverse faith, and waiting for the space shuttles to return. “This is an original and well-formed entry into the crowded field of dystopian fiction. For fans of Emily St. John Mandel’s STATION ELEVEN, N.K. Jemisin’s ‘Broken Earth’ series, and George R.R. Martin’s ‘Song of Ice and Fire’ books.” — Library Journal

Download the e-galley from Edelweiss

VOICES FROM THE RUST BELT by Anne Trubek
A timely anthology of distinct voices exploring life in the Rust Belt today, from the Flint water crisis to white flight in Detroit to growing up female in a heavily male, steel mill town. “A good companion piece to J. D. Vance’s HILLBILLY ELEGY.” — Booklist

September marks the publication of James Tiptree Jr. Literary Award–winning short story writer Nisi Shawl’s highly anticipated first novel, EVERFAIR, a steampunk alternate history set in the Belgian Congo. “It’s as diverse in about as many ways as you can count. The author is a queer black woman, and several of [her] characters are queer (and often women and/or nonwhite as well),” explains Tor Books editor Liz Gorinsky. “The [other] characters represent a multiplicity of voices that have been historically silenced—Africans, East Asians, and African Americans—as well as a few Europeans, in complex relationships with one another.”

WORKS IN TRANSLATION

Increasingly, publishers’ fall lists are featuring speculative fiction in translation, and awards committees have taken note. In 2015, Cixin Liu’s THE THREE-BODY PROBLEM became the first translated sf novel to win a Hugo Award and wound up on the reading lists of President Barack Obama and Mark Zuckerberg. Arriving in September from Tor is DEATH’S END, the highly anticipated conclusion to Liu’s “Remembrance of Earth’s Past” trilogy.

“I have somehow fallen into the Chinese [sf] publishing business, and I couldn’t be happier,” exclaims Tor’s Gorinsky. “This fall we actually have two books translated by Ken Liu (who’s an amazing author in his own right—the only one to ever win Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy awards for the same story).” The second title is INVISIBLE PLANETS, an anthology of Chinese short stories; it includes two tales by Cixin Liu and the rest by rising talents, including the Hugo- and Sturgeon Award–nominated “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang. Coming in October is Mariko Koike’s THE GRAVEYARD APARTMENT; known for her hybrid works that mix detective fiction with horror, the author is one of Japan’s most popular writers. Originally published in 1986, this novel follows a young family as they move into what they believe is the perfect home—despite the cemetery next door.

DRAWN FROM OTHER LANDS

Pseudonymous author Lian Hearn, who has lived in Japan and is a student of the Japanese language, explores that country’s medieval history and mythology in her four-volume “Tale of Shikanoko” series. In the third outing, LORD OF THE DARKWOOD, the warrior Shikanoko must confront the Spider Tribe that he had some part in creating.

Authors are also incorporating some unusual urban settings in the natural world for their epics. Australian Thoraiya Dyer’s series opener, CROSSROADS OF CANOPY, due from Tor in January, introduces a city set in the canopy of a rainforest ruled by gods. Unar, the young servant of the goddess Audblayin, must descend to the deprived realms of Understorey and Floor to seek her destiny. Fran Wilde introduced readers to her towering city of living bone and its flying inhabitants in her award-winning debut UPDRAFT, but more trouble brews for residents in CLOUDBOUND. readmoreremove